Italian in Arpora takes a nostalgia trip down the Raj, Bollywood ---------------------------------------------------------------- BRIEfnCOUNTERS
>From Frederick Noronha PANJIM: It's called Colonial Photo, and via the quaint village of Arpora in North Goa it takes you back to a bygone era when maharajas posed with the tigers they slayed, and Bollywood films had their own black-and-white celluloid tales to tell. Italian expat Silvio Ciancia, who is based in Arpora's Viegas Vaddo, has put together an amazing collection of British-era and Bollywood photographs, which apart from gathering as a passion he also duplicates as collector's items among tourists visiting Goa. "This is only a fraction of my collection. There are lots more," says he, showing you around his old-style Goan villa. On one wall, a 1941 photograph of Bombay's Homeopathic General Hospital has a Miss V. D'Souza as the nurse. What he offers for sale includes old Indian photos, Japanese ones, "colonial photos" and Bollywood pics from the 1940s. There are originals too, while others are printed on paper, canvas or big-size posters. Before shifting gears, Ciancia held a "serious job" in a financial institution of the Italian city of Milan, or Milano. Says he: "I was always interested in photography. Besides, my mother had an antique shop in Milano." Since he was "fed up", he simply took a sabbatical year and came to India. Once here, he decided to "do something". On his first trip to Rajasthan, some seven to eight years ago, he discovered there were a huge amount of old photographs still available in places like Rajasthan. He toured all over India, and started to buy. His dealer, based in that legendary used-goods market with a suggestive name of 'Chor Bazaar' in Mumbai, comes to Goa once a month with offers. "It's now getting difficult to find good photographs. But there are interesting things from Bollywood. They've tried everything (in the Indian film industry). From a make of Jurrasic Park, to old movies. They've even tried Frankenstein and Robin Hood," says Ciancia. Sometimes, he says, there are "too many Kapoors and too many Kumars" in the Indian film industry, making it a bit difficult for him to keep track. Calcutta (now Kolkata) is seeing its colonial-era collectables vanish, says Ciancia. One can still find something in South India. In Goa, he has found little apart from a few not-too-interesting post-cards. "Over the years," says Ciancia, "the price of photos has become so high. Good classic subjects sell for ten to twenty times more over seven years." Sometimes, the price asked for in today's Mumbai is comparable to what is being sought in prominent auction houses like Christy's in London, says he. Ciancia discovered that there is a "huge market" for copies of such photographs and posters. He sells copies for as little as Rs 200-300 each, during the weekly flea market held at Arpora during the tourist season. "I try to be democratic," says he. Some of his reprints are done abroad. "Milano is good not only for fashion and design, but also for printing. Good books are printed there," says he. Foreign tourists visiting Goa find the Bollywood posters a suitable souvenir. Colonial India does have a 'desi' market too, with some going in for the maharaja pictures. In his collection there are pics of the Victoria Jubilee Training Institute final year mechanical engineering class of 1940, adverts for the Guinea Gold cigarettes, and Maharajas of Navanagar to Cooch Behar, Dhar, Junagad, Jaipur, Dhrangudhra and Porbandar. Other scenes show noblemen from Hyderabad with a British officer (1893), a young prince with attendants (1900), and maharajas with the tigers they killed in what might now be seen as a pretty eco-unfriendly manner. Ciancia points out that some of his black-and-white photographs have been re-touched and coloured in the fashion of the 1930s. So, some of those posing in the pictures, has "crazy" coloured turbans, while the rest of the pic remains just shades of grey. On one wall, a photograph shows members of a Freemason's Lodge standing proud. It was the 1930s, when this ideology was considerable fashionable. Later on, by the 1950s, another set looked older, duller and depressed. "By then, this story was over," explains Ciancia. One of the posters from Bollywood is a Johar Films poster of the film 'Goa'. "His (Johar's) daughter is living in Assagao," informs Ciancia. In October 2002, the Bowrings, a prominent fine art auctioneer, held a special show on the Indian film memorabilia in New Delhi, and said a prominent collector, Bhagwan Das Garga (born 1924) was "living in Goa" too. Goa's other links with Bollywood, as the Indian centre of film making is known 600 kms away in Mumbai, trace back to the many Western-trained musicians from here who virtually recast the music of Indian film. Ciancia says he "stopped counting" how many pictures he has, but has over 800 digitalised ones, from which he can make "prints quickly". What's his take on Goa doing a Cannes, as this small Indian state has dreams of copying the world's best-known film fest? "We still have many problems here," says he, stressing the high quality needed to organise a festival like that. "It will take for a lot of work," he says, mentioning difficulties in getting hygiene maintained in his own neighbourhood, for instance. (June2003) Email contact: silviogoa at yahoo.com Phone 9822 175575 -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Frederick Noronha (FN) | http://www.fredericknoronha.net Freelance Journalist | http://www.bytesforall.org http://goalinks.pitas.com | http://joingoanet.shorturl.com http://linuxinindia.pitas.com | http://www.livejournal.com/users/goalinks ------------------------------------------------------------------------- T: 0091.832.2409490 or 2409783 M: 0 9822 122436 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- ########################################################################## # Send submissions for Goanet to [EMAIL PROTECTED] # # PLEASE remember to stay on-topic (related to Goa), and avoid top-posts # # More details on Goanet at http://joingoanet.shorturl.com/ # # Please keep your discussion/tone polite, to reflect respect to others # ##########################################################################
